1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to electronic commerce and more particularly to a method and system for the purchase of a tangible or intangible product over an electronic network.
2. Background Art
With the expansion of the Internet has come expansion of web based commercial sites into virtually all areas of business and commerce. This expansion includes the areas of consumer and commercial lending by banks, mortgage brokers, and other financial institutions. These web sites are typically devoted to transactions conducted with a single institution, such as a bank. Transactions may include making transfers between accounts, making bill payments, and completing loan applications. However, typically, transactions conducted at one site are restricted to matters associated specifically with the institution or organization controlling the web site.
The problem of individual web sites offering only their own products is found with the sale of almost all tangible products, such as automobiles, appliances, etc. and almost all intangible products, such as loans, certificates of deposit, insurance policies, etc. (For the purpose of this discussion, a “seller” is defined as an individual or an entity which makes available a tangible or intangible product to a purchaser, borrower, or investor in exchange for consideration.) A prospective purchaser, borrower, or investor (collectively “consumer”) cannot compare prices for a tangible or intangible product without incurring significant search costs by accessing multiple web sites. This problem is exacerbated when the total cost of purchasing a product includes items in addition to a stated price, such as the cost of delivery for a tangible product or loan points or other closing costs for an intangible product. These additional variables increase complexity, reducing and possibly eliminating the consumer's ability to make an accurate comparison.
An example of this is a residential mortgage which includes several variables, such as type of loan (fixed rate, adjustable rate etc.), term of loan, amount of down payment, and closing costs (such as title insurance, property insurance, appraisal fees, credit reports, etc.). In addition, the fees for and types of closing costs are likely not consistent among lending institutions. This creates a situation in which it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for a consumer to accurately evaluate and compare loan offers from competing lenders, i.e. an “apples to apples” comparison.
Recently, attempts to address this single web site dilemma have been made by the introduction of shopping web sites which display multiple sellers' products and prices and receive compensation for transferring consumers to the seller's web site. These shopping web sites are, in practicality, merely an advertising medium. The consumer visits the shopping web site and, if interested, selects a desired product and is then transferred to that seller's web-site. At this point the shopping web site is no longer part of the transaction. The shopping web site process may reduce, but does not eliminate, the search costs incurred by the consumer. Additionally, as with the single web-site process, the shopping web site process is static: the consumer must still search many sellers and can only view static prices.
What is needed, therefore, are methods and systems to overcome the above-mentioned deficiencies.